Twenty-fourth chapter

I squirmed all night because I couldn't sleep. I can't believe she did that. I woke up tiredly in the morning. I felt awful. I didn't want to get up today. I just want to lie here and not thinking about anything. Of course, it didn't come together, and I started crying again thinking about what happened yesterday. It will be better if I stay here and never go out again. Someone opened the door.

"Aren't you coming for breakfast? Ten hours have passed." Alex said. I saw his shape by the incoming light, but he couldn't see my face.

"I don't want to." I mumbled. He sat down on the couch.

"Are you mad at me?" He asked.

"No." I said. He sighed, stood up and wanted to go out.

"Wait!" I said suddenly.

"Yeah?" He asked.

"How do you know you love someone?" I have no idea why this came to my mind.

"Why?" He asked.

"I'm just curious." He sat down again.

"You know. Hmm. How to say?" He was thinking. "You feel if you love someone. In your heart. Your palms sweat. Your heart beats faster. You look for his gaze. You watch when he is smiling, or you want to put a smile on his face. If he is happy you will be too. You always want to spend a lot of time to him and talk to him even this are unnecessary things. It doesn't matter because you can be with him and you forgive all his mistakes." He sighed. "Why are you interested in this?" He asked. I didn't say anything. "Are you love someone?" He asked. I still haven't said anything. "Is he handsome?" I grimaced. Luckily, he couldn't see my face. He sighed. "Are you already have a secret? We won't be in good." He tried to joke. "I suggest you forget whoever he is. We'll be back one week later, and you'll never come back here. Although I would happy if it will happen." He said. He tapped my foot which covered by the blanket and he stood up. "James and his family come over today you remember?" He asked.

"Yeah." I lied. Such a lot of things happened yesterday that I forgot. He walked out and closed the door. I yelled into the pillow. After that I got up with great difficulty and went into the bathroom. My eyes were red and swollen because I didn't sleep a lot. I let cold water into my hands and washed my face. I set off to have breakfast. Noel sat on his chair. As soon as he saw me, he transferred to the chair in front of me.

"Who are you?" I frowned. "You aren't James adopted kid. Right?" I looked down at the toast and shook my head.

"I am…" Alex entered the kitchen. "I can't tell you." I whispered.

"Why not?" He asked.

"What not?" Alex asked.

"Dad. Who is she? Don't lie to me!" He said with a serious face. Alex sighed.

"She is the princess." Alex said.

"I told you not to lie!" He screamed and stood up.

"I'm Amanda Costigan. The princess." I said seriously. He looked at me questioningly. "Alex is my coach in the castle." He looked at me in shock.

"Oh my god! Wow! I'm sorry! I was disrespectful." He bowed. I smiled.

"Noel!" He straightened and looked at me shyly. "Never do that again please! Behave as before. Ok?" I asked. He nodded and smiled.

"You can't tell anyone in your school." Alex said.

"Oh. I would be so famous." Noel said. "Alright. Not even after she go home?" He asked hopefully.

"Not even then." He said. Noel sighed.

"Are you still playing with me?" He asked shyly.

"I wouldn't miss it." I said. He smiled.

"I will defeat you, Princess." He said.

"Just Amanda." I said. He nodded.

"Noel tidy up the living room first." Alex said.

"They will come. I forget." He said and went to the living room. I went to the living room too after I finished my breakfast. Noel was sitting there lying on the couch and watching a match. I sat down next to him. How can someone love this where men kicking a ball? It doesn't make sense, but I didn't say anything. Liz walked into the living room and took the remote control out of Noel's hand.

"Hey!" He shouted indignantly.

"It's my time. You know it. Get out!" She said. He growled but stood up and walked away. I listened with bated breath to their discussion and I stood up too and walked after him. We played for about two hours, but I was distracted by the fact that Liz didn't look at me either after she entered the room. She really hates me. I put the controller on my lap and covered my face with my hands. I felt someone hugged me. I started crying better. The person just stocked my back. When I felt better, I looked up. Noel looked at me remorsefully.

"I'm sorry! I thought you were used to it, but it doesn't seem to me." I frowned. "I had no idea how it felt to get into another family, and I was selfish that I was just thinking about myself." He said sadly. I shook my head.

"It isn't your fault." I whipped my eyes.

"You can go if you want. Though James and the others are soon here. You should rest." He smiled faintly. I stood up and hugged him.

"I will miss you." I whispered.

"You too." He hugged me tightly.

"Did I miss something?" Alex entered. "Noel are you crying?" He surprised.

"No. A man never cries." He said seriously and wiped his eyes. Alex smiled.

"You are just a kid." He said.

"Well yeah. I am crying." Noel hugged me again.

"They will be here soon. Come for lunch." He said.

Lunch was pretty embarrassing since Liz was here too and of course I can't always avoid her. James and the others arrived ten minutes later, and we went into the living room together. I sat at the table. Next to me was Lily who was drawing something, next to her was Cody, next to him was Noel and on the other side was Liz, who was pushing her phone. The couch was occupied by the others. They talked about the yesterday's performance. Sometimes they asked me some questions like what it is like to live in a castle, what my duties are etc. When I started talking Liz got up and went out.

"It's you." Lily put her drawing excitedly in front of me on the table when it was done. "There is your tiara too." I smiled. She is so cute. "Do you have a makeup?" I nodded. Her eyes lit up. "Can I do your makeup please?" She looked at me with her big blue eyes and she pursed her lower lip.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Lily." Kimberly said. "I'm sure Amanda doesn't want to spoil her makeup."

"No problem." I said quickly. Lily grinned and started pushing me that she want to make my makeup now.

We went into the bathroom from where I brought out the makeup and we went into the kitchen where I could sit.

"Now close your eyes and don't open it." She said. Maybe it was a bad idea. I felt that it was not only my eyes and lips that painted but also what I didn't need makeup for.

"You can open your eyes." She said. Alex entered in the kitchen and when he saw me, he smiled and covered his mouth, but I heard he tried not to laugh. "You are so beautiful. Come and looked it." She took my hand and we went into the bathroom. When I saw myself there I thought I would faint.

"Oh my god! Jesus!" I looked at myself more closely.

"Do you like it?" She asked. (Sometimes you can choose to not be a dick.)

"Yes. Thank you." I said finally. The eyeshadow held from my nose to my ears, and the lipstick was pulled beyond my mouth.

"Damn!" I heard dully.

"Show it to the others!" She grabbed my hand.

"Wait! Give me a second and I will go. OK?" She nodded with a smile on her face and she walked out. I sighed and try to take away the unnecessary makeup. After I finished it the end result became quite tolerable and I went to the living room.

"What happened?" I asked. Everyone looked nervous. Alex and James called someone.

"Liz took the car again." Kimberly said. I forgot she was here too. I was glad she wasn't here now after the incident. I got nervous too.

"What if she went back to the park?" I asked.

"Alex called Matt. He is looking for her at that moment." Kimberly said.

Time has passed. Phone after phone. So far no one knows where she is. Matt also called Alex but he couldn't find her anywhere.

"It's a problem." James said. Alex hung up the phone nervously. "What shall we do?"

"We start looking for her with our car at her friends. We can't do anything else. I hope nothing wrong happened with her." Alex said seriously.

"I'm going too." I said firmly. Alex and James looked at each other. Alex nodded.

Finally, I went with Alex and Kimberly went with James if there really will be a problem. While Alex was driving, I looked out the window if I could see the car or the license plate.

"Stop!" I shouted.

"What?" He asked and he saw the car in front of Aaron's house. "Thanks god!" We got out of the car. Alex's phone rang. "Liz?" He asked. He picked up the phone.

"Hallo." Break. "Liz?" He frowned.

"Where are you?" I heard Aaron's voice. Someone sobbed softly. "I'll find you anyway." He said in a frightening voice.

Alex didn't hang up. He ran to the door and tried to open it. Since he failed so he kicked the front door. The door fallen and the door hit the floor with a huge thud. We entered quickly and we went up to the upstairs. There were pieces of glass on the ground.

"Liz, where are you?" Alex asked in the phone but nobody say something, only we heard a loud sigh. We heard a sharp click at one of the doors. Alex pocketed his phone and opened the door. Aaron turning up a room and looked at us angrily.

"How you get here? That bitch called you right?" Aaron shouted. He didn't seem to be completely sober. Alex stepped in front of Aaron and he punched Aaron's face with his fist. Aaron tried to hit him back, but Alex was faster and pushed him to the floor.

"Find Liz! I will call James and the police until then." He said.

Without a word I went out and looked through every place. I looked under each bed and behind the cabinets. When I went in one of the rooms and started looked around, I heard a sound from the closet. I went there and opened it. Liz contracted herself in fright and trembled. She looked at me in frightened. When she saw me, she stood up immediately and hugged me. She sobbed loudly.

"Everything is alright." I whispered and stroked her back. When she had calmed down a bit, I pushed her away from me to see if something had happened to her. There was nothing on her face but there were handprints on her wrists. I inhaled sharply. For some reason I slowly lifted her right wrist to my mouth, and I kissed it. We heard someone ran up the stairs. Liz flinched.

"Girls?" Kimberly asked. We looked at each other. I let go her wrist. Kimberly appeared in the doorway, walked to Liz, and hugged her. "Omg! Are you okay?" She asked desperately. I looked at the floor.

"Yeah." Liz said feebly.

"The police are coming soon, and they will take him. Calm down!" Kimberly said. She let Liz go. "They take you to the police station tomorrow and there you have to tell them what happened."

"No." She started cry again and Kimberly hugged her again.

The police appeared soon and put Aaron in the car. They said they would take the minutes tomorrow after they hear what Aaron will say. Liz and I sat down in Alex's car. I saw that she trembled a little and I took her right hand. She looked at me and put her head on my shoulder.

"We arrived." Alex whispered. I looked at her. She fell asleep. Alex carefully lift her up and took her into the house.

"What happened? Oh my god!" The elderly lady looked at her in a fright.

"Shh! She needs to rest." Alex said tiredly and picked her up the stairs.

"Is she ill?" Cody asked. I shook my head.

"Are we playing something?" Noel asked. He didn't understand the situation either, but it's better to leave the little ones out of it. We went into the living room. Noel took out a card and played with the little ones. I sat down on the couch and stared at the floor.

"What happened?" My grandmother asked.

"I have no idea." I said. Alex appeared and sat down wearily beside me.

"She woke up. She would like to talk with you." He looked at me.

"With me?" I asked. He nodded. I stood up and went up the stairs. Before I went in the room, I took a deep breath.